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I know that Oprah advocates not eating three hours before your bedtime, so I'm not sure it's 7:00 p.m. specifically but I think the goal is not to eat close to your bedtime in general. I know that I find it tough to follow this rule because I'm a night owl but when I follow the rule along with everything else I've been doing, the needle on the scale moves. You might try it.

this question gets asked a bunch on sparkpeople, and the dieticians at spark generally answer the question with -calories are calories- doesn't matter when you eat them-- calories consumed in the evening don't make you gain weight as long as you stay within range.

However, newbride's got it right... Calories are for energy... how much energy do you burn while you're sleeping? unless you a total gymnastic sleeper, you don't need much.. you need the calories earlier in the day when you are active and moving...

But going to bed hungry can make for a restless sleep, so a lite bedtime snack isnt a bad thing - as long as you are staying within your calories

Calories are calories. They are all cumulative regardless of time of day they are consumed. Ideally, spacing them out in smaller portions is best for the metabolism, but most importantly you would really want to avoid fattening foods and empty carbohydrate calories right before bed.

Yes Calories are calories up to a point, but the body can absorb only a certain amount per mean, so if you ate a large meal of wholegrain rice, part of it will convert to fat, regardless of the fact its a pure source of carbs and fibre.

I do think that avoiding late dinners is a worthwhile move, and its a bit like your sleep pattern, much easier to do if you eat properly during the day. A lot of late diners, tend to not take a breakfast meal, or eat a late lunch.

I have a friend (hardly scientific I know), who has taken this much further, i.e. not eating after 3pm, and its the only diet change that he's made (to a fairly reasonable diet to start with) and its definintely producing results.

To put it in perspective, Its far more important what you eat and drink, than when, and how you exercise, but as an additional effort, this is worth doing, in my opinion

I have been doing the 3 hours before bedtime, mostly because everything I have read from Bob Greene (Oprahs trainer) has been right on. A couple of times I broke that rule, and saw the difference on the scale. I can't prove that there is any science behind it, but it works for me.

This is a hard one for me b/c I usually get the munchies in the evening and on top of that I workout at night and so by the time I get home I am super hungry and it takes A LOT of self control to not start eating everything in sight :P I have found however, that not eating after my dinner (so not eating after 7pm) seems to help a lot in my weightloss efforts. Like others have said, I also feel better the next day and usually don't wake up feeling bloated and puffy from water retention.

It's hard for me because I usually go to bed around 9-9:30 pm because I have to wake up early (4 am) to go to work and I don't usually finish work until 7:30-8 pm. I usuall get home at 8:30 and eat something. What should I do? I work 5-8 in the evenings and its hard to get a chance to eat when there are children running around.

I think the important thing to remember, like others have said here, is that calories are calories and if you eat more than you put out then you are going to gain, regardless of the time of day you eat. Some people just find that not eating at night helps them lose weight more efficiently, especially people like me who tend to want to binge in the evenings .. But not everyone has those issues so I say ( and I'm no expert .. lol) that if you have to eat at night then do it .. the most important thing is to not eat more calories than you need and you know what you need ... according to your ticker you've lost weight so you must be doing something right!!

I heard from a personal trainer once that this was a Myth, and that watching what you eat in the evenings, portions etc was more important, but that NOT eating late wasn't necessarily a factor.
?? Yet every doctor I've ever spoken too has said no eatting 4 hours prior to bed??